Atlantic Beach, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Atlantic Beach, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Atlantic Beach lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Atlantic Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Atlantic Beach — the short answer
Atlantic Beach, Florida: USDA zone 9b, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Jan 25 - Feb 10
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Dec 7 - Dec 18
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 9b is Atlantic Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atlantic Beach
Each reading below is measured for Atlantic Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAtlantic Beach sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Atlantic Beach is in
Atlantic Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Atlantic Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from its county.
What Grows in Atlantic Beach
Every plant below cleared Atlantic Beach's own zone 9b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Atlantic Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Atlantic Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN KIRKPATRICKBrownfields · 750 ft
- MCCALL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ATLANTIC BEACH CITY MUNICIPAL WRKS YDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SELVA MARINA COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- STITCHES & SCREEN INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- RACETRAC#2500Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MURR'S MUFFLERS & MOREBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- RIVER CITY CUSTOM CABINETRYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MARTIN #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- D H L M INVESTMENT GROUP PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTHEAST HOUSING LLCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- FMR BP #24621Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius.
Measured from Atlantic Beach's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Atlantic Beach.
Total Sites
645
within ~10 miles of Atlantic Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Atlantic Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Atlantic Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atlantic Beach, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 346 sites within ~10 miles of Atlantic Beach. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Atlantic Beach
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atlantic Beach average
Your land is one point inside Atlantic Beach
Everything above resolves to Atlantic Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Atlantic Beach Average
Atlantic Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Atlantic Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Atlantic Beach
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atlantic Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atlantic Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atlantic Beach, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atlantic Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atlantic Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atlantic Beach average
How we know this about Atlantic Beach
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Atlantic Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Atlantic Beach?
Atlantic Beach has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows Florida's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Jan 25 - Feb 10 and their first fall hard freeze around Dec 7 - Dec 18, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atlantic Beach?
The federal record around Atlantic Beach is a meaningful one — 645 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (346), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Atlantic Beach?
As the season closes around Florida's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Dec 7 - Dec 18 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Atlantic Beach's scale — its 9b band and its zone 9b. Your yard writes its own version of Atlantic Beach's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Atlantic Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Atlantic Beach's own scale — the 2,357 acres it covers and 645 documented sites around it; 3 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atlantic Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 645 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Atlantic Beach, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Atlantic Beach's boundary and the 2,357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Atlantic Beach's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Atlantic Beach's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom Florida
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atlantic Beach's 2,357 acres read through the state summaryfrom Florida
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atlantic Beach's 2,357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atlantic Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,357 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Atlantic Beach-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaAtlantic Beach sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides